


Playing The Game

by TheGreatLibraryFangirl (Mazeem)



Series: Gaps in Canon [2]
Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: Bad Flirting, During Canon, F/M, Getting to Know Each Other, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26338114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mazeem/pseuds/TheGreatLibraryFangirl
Summary: Repost from April drabbles. Because it's not a drabble.Set during Ink and Bone. Ptolemy House-era Khalila and Dario are both still sore about losing to Jess at Go.Or, Dario tries very, very hard to become interesting to Khalila.
Relationships: Dario Santiago/Khalila Seif
Series: Gaps in Canon [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1318670
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Playing The Game

Dario was concentrating so hard on the board in front of him that it took almost an hour before he looked over at Khalila.

(That was a record. Usually every time she moved, she drew his eye.)

“Stop staring at me, Dario,” she said without looking up. How did she do that?

Even disdain just made her more attractive.

She turned a page. “You’re still staring. I _will_ go to my room if you can’t control yourself.”

Portero sniggered. Dario kicked his ankle hard enough to make him gasp.

“No need, no need!” he said airily. In the process of tearing his gaze away, he read the title of the book she was holding.

_The Theory and Practice of Go_.

His heart leapt in his chest.

_We’re doing the same thing. Common interest! A talking point!_

Breathe, Dario.

“That’s worse than trying to learn chess from a book!” he said, in an accusatory tone that he absolutely hadn’t intended. Shit.

It caught her attention, regardless. She looked at him and raised one eyebrow.

He felt himself flushing all over. He loved that eyebrow raise. You’ve said something worthy of half of my attention, it seemed to say. Now earn the rest.

“And is your strategy proving particularly fruitful?” she asked. “Defeating weaker players again and again to boost your own ego?”

“Keep boosting it,” Glain said from the seat next to Khalila. “Your head might explode and we’d be free of you.”

Dario threw her an obscene gesture.

“Well,” he said to Khalila, “bearing in mind that the only people I consider better than me at this are you and Jess, it rather limits my pool of challenging partners.”

Khalila’s other eyebrow rose. Dario was going to gain a new fetish if he wasn’t careful.

“Is that a backhanded invitation for me to play against you?” She closed her book, but stayed in her seat.

Dario bit the inside of his cheek to avoid grinning. He stood and bowed elaborately towards the seat on the other side of the board.

Noticed Portero was still in it.

“ _Vai te foder_!”

“I speak Portuguese,” Khalila said in long-suffering tones. Glain laughed.

Dario shared Portero’s quick, wide-eyed look of regret, before he sharpened his gaze and glared until the Portuguese boy fucked off like he’d been told.

“I’m sure you speak it better than I do,” he assured Khalila.

“She does everything better than you do,” muttered someone on the other side of the common room.

“She does everything better than all of us, or haven’t you noticed?” Dario shot back.

Khalila sighed. “I’m going to my room.” She stood. Out of sheer habit, Dario eyed the way her body shifted and pressed against her dress as she moved. He would certainly go to hell when he died for any number of reasons; he might as well enjoy himself here and now. 

He just about defeated the urge to grab her and stop her, but he knew there was no mistaking the way his traitorous body swayed towards her. “Come on, beautiful desert flower,” he wheedled. “You won’t beat Jess with theory. Use me as practise.”

The sour taste in his mouth at the implication of being second-best to Jess warred with the way his entire body heated as he registered he’d just said “Use me,” out loud.

Oh, God. Redirect the blood flow, Dario.

As usual she stared at him like she could read his mind, and wasn’t very impressed. Presumably she wasn’t reading his mind, this time.

She’d probably slap him.

He wouldn’t complain.

“Losing to Jess _was_ annoying.” She moved to take the seat opposite him and he nearly fell back into his chair.

“Yes. It was. We’ll improve together!”

Instead of answering, she swept the stones into her lap, sorted them with neat, quick movements, and handed the black stones to Dario.

Handing him the advantage of the first move. Typically, that advantage averaged out to about six points by the end of a game.

She was confident she was going to beat him by more than six points, then.

His heart pounded so hard that he could feel it in his fingertips as he placed his first stone.

* * *

Several turns later, she snapped down a stone in retaliation, taking three of his. "You're not concentrating. That was a stupid move."

"It was," he admitted. "It's difficult to concentrate with you sat opposite me." It was the truth, but she scowled as if he'd said something insulting. 

"I watched you when you played Jess," she said. "You were focused. I don't want an empty win." Her voice almost sounded sulky. It was adorable. 

"Thank you for the reminder." Again, honesty. She compelled honesty out of him. "I promise I'll keep my eyes on the board. You deserve to fight for your victory."

She gave him a look of surprise, then turned the dimpled beauty of her full smile on him in response.

His heart quailed in his chest. Could he do this? Could he ignore the incomparable angel in front of him and find the state of flow that he had found against Jess?

Yes, he would. He must. Not just because she had asked, although that was more of a consideration than for anyone else he’d ever met, but because what he’d just said was right. She deserved his best performance.

He steeled himself and studied the board.

**Author's Note:**

> There's a definite argument that at this point Dario is a better Go player than Khalila - Jess dispatches her without much trouble, whereas he takes a while to topple Dario's strategy. 
> 
> I kiiiiiiiind of forgot about this, was thinking of their chess abilities instead, so, hey, see it as an extension of the way my Dario's subby impulses are glorifying how much better than him Khalila is, I guess?


End file.
